Yes, I'm gonna talk about politics...

Senegal's fellow ECOWAS member country Cote d'Ivoire is in another bloody conflict, and its other Muslim nations on the African continent have seen all kinds of turmoil. Al Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb is present in Mauritania, just to the north, and other countries in the region supposedly aren't the safest to walk around in as a toubab. So what's the deal with Senegal?

Senegal is the country of peace and hospitality. Since political situations are raging all over the world, I wanted to explain Senegal's. Granted, there's been some problems recently, but not to the extent of the rest of the African continent. A soldier recently set himself on fire (he didn't die though) for soldiers' rights. There are student and teacher strikes because of funding and pay issues, and there's a strong political opposition movement now called "Y En A Marre," or "We're Sick of It."

Senegal is supposedly a model of African democracy. Since it's independence in 1960 it has respected human rights and been on the path to development. Léopold Sedar Senghor, a Christian Serer, was an author who led the negritude movement and became the first president. After his twenty years, he passed off the presidency to fellow Senegalese Democratic Bloc party member Abdou Diouf, who lost the presidential election in 2000 and peacefully stepped down. Although these two presidents, Senghor especially (despite his anti-colonial rhetoric), were criticized for remaining too close to the French system, they still managed importance advances. Senegal, with its richest resource of the peanut, steadily developed and canceled the majority of its debt acquired after independence.

Some people will tell you another story since 2000, when Abdoulaye Wade won the presidency. Supposedly in 2000 only 9% of citizens had electricity, and now 28% do. I heard that on television, but I'm not sure if it's accurate. In any case, people are frustrated, especially in the regions, because there are so many electrical and water outages. The electricity is only so reliable, cutting out occasionally for a day or more at a time. Hopefully tonight's Champions League game will be fine…

Especially up here in the North, close to the river, people are upset. Matam, a town nearby, has few electrical problems because it receives electricity from a hydroelectric dam built upsteam in Mali, the Barrage Malantali. However, in Ourossogui, a mere 7km away, the electricity cuts all the time. So people are frustrated with Wade. He apparently either intends to run for another term, which was disallowed under his presidency in a new constitution, or have his son Karim run. He has a somewhat large support base still, but this would create enormous problems.

I haven't been in Senegal long enough to comment on Wade's ability, especially compared to the presidents before him. But the speeches of his party, the Senegalese Democratic Party, are very Wade-centric. They always seem to be saying "His Honor Mr. Wade did this for the people of Senegal," instead of highlighting the actions of the party or the government as a whole. Whereas the American political system highlights the party, here the individual is the center of the show.

I don't have much to say, but I almost forgot to mention Wade's other problem. He's at least 92 years old. That's the number he gives, but most people say he's hiding that he's actually 95, and some of the opposition claim he's over 100 years old and has to take all different types of pills to get up and make speeches. Anyways, we'll see what pops off in 2012.